LRL has the responsibility of demonstrating the feasibility of a reactor for use as a power plant for a low-altitude, high-Mach-number missile. This reactor is literally a very high power air heater which must work at temperatures in excess of 2000' F. The reactor is exposed to high loads so one of the primary problems is providing high temperature structure. Considerable effort has been devoted to developing ceramic structural elements. One of the materials considered for this purpose is silicon nitride. In ceramic structural elements operating over large temperature ranges, a major problem is coping with thermal stress. In this respect there is a similarity with the radome problem. The work on silicon nitride at LRL consisted of limited fabrication studies (principally for familiarization), measurement of properties of interest to the application, and funding of fabrication scale-up efforts.

Experiments with a simple pulsed magnetic field in cusped geometry are described. The plasma is generated inside the containment region rather than injected from an external source. It was found that creation of the plasma by a linear pinch discharge is most successful. Only qualitative studies have been carried out so far, using time-resolved visual observation of the plasma. Well-defined plasma bodies located in the central region between the cells were photographed. In order to make them clearly visible, a few percent of argon was added to the hydrogen.

This report summarizes the original construction and recent modifications of the electron-electron coincidence spectrometer BRS-IV located in Building 70 of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory. In addition to new information on the modified spectrometer, this report also contains a large amount of material taken from two previous UCRL reports.

The problem of the reduction of an arbitrary truth function to the minimal union of basic cells is discussed. The solution to this problem has applications to pattern recognition and logical circuit design. An algorithm is presented that solves the problem and generates the class of minimal unions. It partitions an arbitrary truth function into a well-defined set of subfunctions (components) in such a way that the partition is invariant under all transformations that preserve the topology of the original truth function.

The theoretical half lives for alpha emissions have been calculated for nearly all of the complex alpha spectra. The spin independent equations of Preston were used for the calculations. The nuclear radius for the even-even nuclei was determined with the assumption that the alpha transition to the ground state is unhindered. For odd mass nuclides the average of the nuclear radii of the adjacent even-even nuclides was used. For odd-odd nuclides the average of the nuclear radii of the adjacent odd mass nuclides of the same atomic number was used.

This paper reports an extension of previous experimental work with Alfven waves. We consider hydromagnetic waves propagating in a cylindrical plasma in a uniform axial magnetic field. The copper tube is filled with highly ionized plasma by an electrically driven switch-on ionizing wave. After the tube is filled with plasma, a hydromagnetic wave is induced by a radial current flow from the small molybdenum electrode to the copper tube. The force produced by this radial current together with the static axial magnetic field displaces the plasma in the azimuthal direction, and a transverse wave is propagated in the axial direction, along magnetic field lines. The transient magnetic field associated with the wave is also in the azimuthal direction.

It is possible to generate a relatively uniform, highly ionized plasma by passing a powerful discharge between electrodes so arranged that the current is forced to flow across an initial strong magnetic field. The magnetic induction due to the discharge causes a bending of the original field. If the discharge is operated with a low-impedance current source, the electric breakdown starts in a limited region near the current-input connections (minimum-inductance path) and propagates as a well-defined front in the manner of a hydromagnetic shock wave. In this paper we analyze the phenomenon as a one-dimensional single-fluid hydromagnetic problem, neglecting dissipation behind the wave.

In the Plowshare Program many calculations of the effects of underground explosions are made. Usually these are done on high-speed digital computers. The effects are calculated for ranges up to hundreds of meters from the explosion; at these ranges pressures become less than one kilobar. In order to make these calculations, information about the properties of the materials involved is required. Benedick [13] has developed a low-pressure, plane-wave lens using nitroguanidine. It was decided to use a similar lens in the Plowshare Program. A number of lenses were built using Benedick's technique. This report is of a study of simultaneity and pressure uniformity of these lenses, with some attempts at development of a reflection pressure vs particle velocity curve for them.

Surface contamination with beryllium becomes a hazard to health only when the potential exists for resuspension in air in enough quantity and for enough time to exceed the prescribed standards for airborne exposures. There are several factors governing the rate and nature of resuspension phenomena. These factors include: the quantity and properties of the particular beryllium compound causing the contamination, the nature of the surface, activities in the vicinity, ventilation in the area which might affect the dilution of resuspended particles, and the presence of other control measures such as respiratory protection and use of wet methods. Generally, it has been found that the problem is minimal and can be easily controlled by exercising good judgement based upon consideration of pertinent factors governing resuspension, and a knowledge of the nature of beryllium toxicity.

Over the past 13 years a considerable body of data on explosive cratering has been developed for application to nuclear excavation projects. These data were obtained from some ten cratering programs using chemical explosives (TNT or nitromethane) and seven nuclear cratering detonations. The types of media studied have ranged from marine muck to hard, dry basalt, although most effort has been devoted to craters in NTS desert alluvium and basalt. Considerable effort has also been devoted to the study with chemical explosives of the use of linear explosives and rows of point charges. This paper is intended to be a summary of these data and a statement of the understanding which has been developed from them.

This reference manual describes the IBM 704 program called Kick, by which complete bubble chamber events are kinematically analyzed. Kick's input data is the output from the Pang program, which uses raw track measurements to spatially reconstruct the tracks, and fits appropriate curves to them.

The crystal structures of the normal fatty acids of low molecular weight have been rather neglected until recently. Formic acid and acetic acid occur in the solid as hydrogen-bonded linear polymers, while several acids with eleven or more carbon atoms per molecule exist in the solid as dimers. The melting points of these acids, when plotted against number of carbon atoms, fall on two rather similar curves for even and odd numbers of carbon atoms, respectively, each with a minimum near five carbon atoms. These facts and hope of explaining the melting-point behavior led us to examine the structures of propionic and butyric acid crystals. These crystals have different structures, but both contain dimers.

A carrier-free separation of hafnium from several hundred milligrams of rare earth oxides by anion exchange from saturated HC1 solution is given. The procedure is completed in 4-8 hours and is suitable for remote control work.

The present study was motivated by an attempt to understand low energy [formula] scattering within the framework of the bootstrap principle and the un-Reggeized version of the strip approximation. This work attempts to generate low energy [formula] scattering in the p(1,1) and p(3,3) states assuming the potential operating in these states is generated by the exchange of low mass meson states in the crossed t-channel and low mass baryon states in the crossed u channel. In particular, the p-meson is kept in channel t; the p mass and the coupling of [formula] and [formula] appear as parameters. The parameters of the nucleon and (3,3) poles are taken as the elements to be determined by self-consistency.